A Comprehensive Collection - Swami Vivekananda

VEDANTA. 367us, as it were, a microcosm, and the world taken altogatheris the macrocosm. But whatever is in the vyashtiwe may safely conjecture that a similar thing is happeningour ownalso outside. If we had the power to analyseminds, we might safely conjecture that the same thing ishappening in our own minds. What is this mind,is thequestion. In modern times, in Western countries asphysical science is making rapid progress, as physiologyis step by step conquering stronghold after stronghold ofold religions, the Western people do not know where tostand, because to their great despair modern physiologyhas identified the mind with the brain at every step. Andthat we in India have known always. That was the firstproposition the Hindu boy should learn, that the mind ismatter, only finer. The bodv is gross, and behind thebody is what we call the sukshmasarira, the fine bodyor mind. This is also material, only finer; and it is notthe atman. I will not translate this word to you inEnglish, because the idea does not exist in Europe ;it isuntranslatable. The modern attempt of German philosophers is to translate the word atman by the word 7self,and until that word is universally accepted it is impossibleto use it. So, call it as self or anything, it is our atman.This atman is the real man behind. It is the atman thatuses the material mind as its instrument, its antahkarana,as the psychological term for the mind is. And the mindby means of a series of internal organs works the visibleorgans of the body. What is this mind ? It was only theother day that Western philosophers have come to knowthat the eyes are not the real organs of vision, but thatbehind these are other organs, the indriyas, and if these aredestroyed a man may have a thousand eyes, like Indra,but there will be no sight for him. Aye, your philosophy